Futurama

client: Graduation Piece

The project

Before leaving France for the UK I studied model making for a year. This was a sandwich course and I was working part-time at Iveco Iris Bus, Group Fiat, as a model maker while not in the school.

This model is my exam piece, a reproduction of Futurama cartoon main building. The most important thing for me was to give the cartoon atmosphere through a physical model. The final painting did not give a lot of place for error. A clean paint job was necessary to give the impression of all pieces being drawn.

My role

Technics and precision:

It was important to use most of the prototyping technics I learned: CNC, vacuum forming, vacuum casting, turning, painting …
In such a model you don’t need to over detail every single piece but to choose where you want the viewer to focus and make sure those parts are made with a great level of refinement and precision.

The right angle:

Some pieces required extra care and thoughts before being made. The tower base was a complex part assembled from 30 pieces that were all cut at a precise angle to form a cone. Choosing the right tool, using the right settings and sometimes making special rigs are needed to achieve the result wanted.
The finished tower is made of pieces, hand cut with a circular saw, vacuum formed, engraved by hand, some are made by CNC, other turn on the lathe…

Planning:

When making a model at this scale with lots of small details, you have to make sure your work is planned accordingly. The assembly order really matters, you cannot paint some pieces when they are glued and vice versa, so organisational skills are critical.